Sunday, January 28, 2007

Swing Kids (or the WORST movie ever)

Oh Christian Bale, how could you? Was it the money or perhaps the chance to work with Kenneth Branagh or Barbara Hershey? I have just watched what I think is the worst movie I've ever seen. I mean, I was expecting a bit of cheese but this was way past that. Let's start with the premise:

In Nazi occupied Germany, the youth of the nation were pressed into joining a pro-Nazi Youth League called the "Hiterjugend", or Hitler Youth. A group of rebel teenagers, however, chose to defy Nazi directives and grew their hair long and listened to American music while calling themselves the "Swing Kids." This is the story of one group of Swing Kids and how Nazi rule and persuasion tore them apart and set them against each other.

So we are in Germany, why does everyone have an American or British accent? But every now and then a German phrase is thrown in (with perfect enunciation) just in case you forgot this was supposed to be Germany.
Ok, I can get past that, I mean I'd rather have no accent at all rather than drifting in and out of one (think Kevin Costner in Prince of Thieves).

Next - the writing was just terrible, characters drift in and out for no reason, a love story thrown in and then forgotten about. Did I mention the glaring continuity errors? In one scene a dance club is raided and shut down, but then the same club is used again later on. Any plot twist could be seen a mile away.

But the absolute clincher was the overly dramatic ending when as the protagonist is arrested and taken away by the Gestapo he thrusts up his arm in a mock Nazi salute and shouts back in defiance "Swing Heil Thomas, Swing Heil"
The sad part is, the Swing Kids was an actual movement in the 1930's so lots of material there for a good screenplay. But trust Hollywood to dumb it down to a dance movie with little or no substance.
I need to watch something else to cleanse my pallet

5 comments:

John Taylor said...

That's too bad. I like Bale very much, as well as, Robert Sean Leonard (House). Still want to see "All the Little Animals" with Bale and John Hurt. If you've seen it - How was it?
(also, thanks for the link)

Chris said...

I like Bale too. I'll put it down to youth. This film came out in 1992/1993 depending on what site you believe. So he would have only about 18 or 19 yrs old. Now his performace was fine, it was just the movie overall that was bad. Terrible terrible writing.

Laurel Canyon with Christian Bale and Frances McDormand is a much better movie.

The Periodic Englishman said...

That sounds ghastly. Really ghastly.

I had to look up Christian Bale's filmography, unfortunately, because I've never heard of him. The only two films he's been in that I recognise and have actually seen, it turns out, are Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Empire Of The Sun.

I don't remember him being in Captain Corelli's Mandolin - I may just have been too busy shouting at the dreadful miscasting of Nicholas Cage to notice, however. What a travesty that was.

And as for Empire Of The Sun - I seem to remember really liking that. Was Christian Bale the beautiful and tender wee boy who played the main part? If that was him, then I suddenly feel very old.

"Think Kevin Costner in Prince of Thieves", you suggest. If it is all the same with you, Ms Scottish-Lemon, I'd really rather not.

Hello to John Taylor at the top of the page.

Kind regards etc....

clippmcgraw said...

I'll just add it to my list of movies I do not need to see!

Aunty Barb

Anonymous said...

The only reason this movie wasn't good is that people didn't understand the background of what was going on in Germany. If the people who have seen this movie would haver understood the background and what everything represented then it would have been a hit. I happen to love this movie.